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Europe, U.S. offer Ukraine help

KIEV – A joint U.S. and EU plan to offer short-term financial aid to Ukraine would be unlikely to resolve the crisis that has rocked the country for the past three months but could put President Viktor

KIEV – A joint U.S. and European offer of financial aid to Ukraine may not be the answer to calming weeks of unrest and moving Ukraine out of the Russian orbit, say analysts.

But the offer could put President Viktor Yanukovych under increasing pressure to step down, they say.

"A crisis is still a crisis and there are no positive signs that it will be resolved," said Serhiy Solodky, deputy director of the Institute of World Policy in Kiev. "But it is logical to expect greater pressure. There will be pre-conditions … including pro-reformist aspirations."

On Sunday, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told The Wall Street Journal that the EU and U.S. were working on a package aimed at providing funds through a transition period to presidential elections.

However, Ashton said the amount of money, which "won't be small," would be dependent on political and economic reforms, a transition that analysts said would be unlikely to be led by Yanukovych's government.

"I have doubts that anyone from the current government can expect an aid package given to them because they've been so discredited by the wrongdoings … there is widespread corruption," said Solodky. "The aid package will be for a pro-democratic and pro-reformist government. Maybe that will consist of some of the ruling party members."

Protesters said the aid package would be a good first step, but that the U.S. and EU needed to go further.

"I think what we need from the West now is sanctions against certain people in the government," said Nataliya Savenko, 38, a protester from Kiev.

"It would help the nation to fight this mafia system. When we win, we will be rebuilding our state and that's when the money from the West would be very helpful."

Yanukovych has faced intense pressure to implement reforms and hold elections after hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the street to demonstrate against his decision late last year to reject a long-planned political and economic treaty with the European Union.

Instead, the president accepted a bailout and gas delivery package from Russia – part of which has been delivered and the rest on hold because Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to first see whom Kiev selects for a prime minister.

Yanukovych recently agreed to repeal a law preventing demonstrations as a way to calm things, but protesters have said they will not vacate the areas in Kiev they currently occupy until the president resigns, new elections are held and political reforms instituted.

The political turmoil in the Eastern European country was one of the issues on the agenda at a security meeting in Munich over the weekend, where U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the EU and U.S. would "stand with the people of Ukraine" in the fight to associate with partners.

Kerry also called for Ukraine's foreign minister, Leonid Kozhara, to release political prisoners, address the deteriorating human rights situation and safeguard democratic principles, calls analysts said they expected to be part of conditions for any aid deal.

The remarks followed a speech by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who criticized Western support for the Ukrainian opposition, suggesting that it was leading to an escalation in violence.